It’s been a bit of a roller coaster recently, and I’m deciding to cancel my participation in the event.
After the Lake District SOTA weekend I had a period of about three weeks feeling unwell and struggling with a heavy cold. Because of feeling unwell, I haven’t done any radio operating since the LD event.
It was half term school holiday last week and we as a family, visited my wife’s father in Devon. We had a nice time, however on the journey back, my ancient Xsara Picasso MPV decided to break down about half way home. As you may well imagine, as the I’m the unofficial vehicle technician, I was not in the good books! After 5 hours of being stranded near Birmingham we eventually recieved a courtesy car and was able to continue our journey home, returning to Bentham at around 11pm, about 12 hours after setting off.
Last weekend we spent a whole lot of time trying to find a suitable replacement car that was available and within budget. Life is tough here on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales without a car - the bus service is appalling and there’s only 5 trains a day. My intended SOTA activity also depended on getting a car, as my wife needs her car to go for her hair appointment some 40+ miles away.
Thankfully a replacement car was found on Sunday and I was able to drive it away immediately. I find car buying incredibly stressful, especially as I’m the one in the family who us supposed to know about cars (I don’t really!). Anyway I’m now back on the road.
As I haven’t used a radio for so long, I decided to try an activation of Whernside yesterday. I was interested to see how the tiny diesel engine in my car would cope with the hilly roads, it did OK really, although plenty of gear changes needed as the power band seems quite narrow (intercooler / turbo). I’d seen the propagation data and thought that there was absolutely no point carrying a rig up a hill, so I didn’t! It seems to happen to me a lot - I’m desperate to test my K1SWL Hilltop 20 transceiver and each time I’ve intended to take it out, there’s a solar storm!!
I enjoyed the walk up Whernside, it was nice to get up a hill for the first time since the LD SOTA event.
After looking at the weather forecast for high winds and also considering the unsettled HF propagation, I’ve decided to cancel SOTA tomorrow, even though I’ve been looking forward to it. I have an arbitrary rule that I operate only if the MWIS predicts 30mph wind or less. That rule is certainly in breach at the moment.
Stay safe everyone, I’m sure they’ll be plenty of opportunities for transatlantic QSOs in the coming months and years.
73, Colin
I actually love driving the Coquet Valley - we used to rent a cottage up there each year and I know the road well.
Looking very windy tomorrow but the afternoon rain has gone from the forecast so I’m hoping to give it a go. Made my 20m upper and outer into a link 17m/20m upper and outer this afternoon looks like that may have been a good move 